The Cold War E-Book

Priscilla Roberts

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 138

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2000

Beschreibung

The Cold War dominated international relations in the second half of the 20th century in an all-embracing ideological and military conflict between communism and democracy. This survey shows the Cold War as the consequence of the breakdown of the existing international system during the two world wars and a new great power alignment which emerged to fill the vcuum created in both Europe and Asia as existing states and imperial powers lost their former predominance. The text draws on recent scholarship on the Cold War, based not only upon materials from US, British, Canadian, Australian and European sources, but also upon those from Soviet, Eastern European and Asian sources that only became available in the 1990s. The author aims to shed new light on familiar events such as the Berlin crisis, the Sino-Soviet split, detente, the Sino-American rapprochement of the 1970s and 80s, and the ultimate collapse of communism and the Soviet empire in Europe. The book also compares the Cold War's domestic impact on the various countries involved, and assesses the degree to which, even today, the Cold War's influence on the international scene remains pervasive.

Leseprobe

Pocket Histories

THE COLD WAR

PRISCILLA ROBERTS

For my parents

The two bravest people I know

First published in 2000 by Sutton Publishing

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved

© Priscilla Roberts, 2000, 2013

The right of Priscilla Roberts, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 9478 4

Original typesetting by The History Press

Cover picture:Military Parade on Red Square, Moscow, 1 May 1968 (N. Sitnikov/TASS, courtesy Jonathan Falconer)

Contents

List of Dates

Map 1 Postwar alliances: the Far East

Map 2 Postwar alliances: Europe, North Africa, the Middle East

Introduction

1. The European Dimension, 1945–1950

2. Korea to Vietnam, 1950–1975

3. The Quest for Superpower Understanding, 1953–1974

4. Resurgence to Ending, 1973–1991

Conclusion

Further Reading

List of Dates

November 1917

Successful Bolshevik revolution in Tsarist Russia

July 1918

Allied intervention in Russia, in which United States participates

November 1918

First World War ends in armistice

April 1920

United States withdraws last troops from Russia

April 1933

Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes US president

November 1933

United States recognizes Soviet Union

August 1939

Nazi–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact

September 1939

Germany and Soviet Union invade Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany

May 1940

Katyn massacre

June 1941

Germany invades Soviet Union

August 1941

Atlantic Charter

December 1941

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and Germany and Japan declare war on United States

November 1943

Teheran conference

June 1944

D-Day: Anglo–American invasion of Europe

August–October 1944

Warsaw uprising

February 1945

Yalta conference

April 1945

Death of Franklin D. Roosevelt; successor as US president Harry S. Truman

May 1945

Surrender of Germany

June 1945

San Francisco conference approves United Nations Charter

July–August 1945

Potsdam conference

August 1945

Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Japan surrenders; Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnamese independence

February 1946

George F. Kennan sends Long Telegram

March 1946

Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech

United States criticizes Soviet behaviour towards Iran and Turkey; Soviets withdraw forces from Iran

March 1947

Truman Doctrine speech

Treaty of Dunkirk between Britain and France

June 1947

Announcement of Marshall Plan

July 1947

Kennan article, ‘Sources of Soviet Conduct’

September 1947

Rio Treaty to defend Western Hemisphere

October 1947

Cominform established

February 1948

Communist coup in Czechoslovakia

March 1948

Brussels security pact of five West European powers

April 1948

Organization of American States established

May 1948

Creation of Israel; immediately recognized by Soviet Union and United States

June 1948

Berlin blockade begins

April 1949

North Atlantic Treaty signed

May 1949

Berlin blockade ends

August 1949

Soviet Union tests atomic bomb

September 1949

Federal Republic of Germany established

October 1949

Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong, proclaims People’s Republic of China on Chinese mainland

January 1950

Sino–Soviet Treaty of Alliance and Friendship Senator Joseph R. McCarthy makes Wheeling, Virginia, speech, beginning of McCarthyism

April 1950

NSC 68 recommends massive American rearmament

June 1950

North Korea invades South Korea; United States successfully urges United Nations intervention

November 1950

Chinese intervention in Korean War

April 1951

Formation of European Coal and Steel Community

September 1951

Signature of Japanese–American peace treaty and security treaty and ANZUS Pact

January 1953

Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes US president

March 1953

Death of Stalin

June 1953

Panmunjom armistice agreement effectively ends Korean war; United States concludes security treaty with South Korea

Workers uprising in East Berlin crushed with Soviet assistance

August 1953

CIA-backed coup overthrows Mohammed Mossadeq’s government in Iran and restores Shah Reza Mohammed Pahlavi II to power

September 1953

Nikita Khrushchev becomes general secretary of Soviet Communist Party

December 1953

Eisenhower’s ‘Atoms for Peace’ proposal

March 1954

Successful United States testing of hydrogen bomb

May 1954

Vietminh defeat French army at Dienbienphu; French decide to leave Indochina

June 1954

Successful CIA-backed coup against Guatemalan government

July 1954

Geneva accords end First Indochina War, partitioning Vietnam into North and South

September 1954

Creation of SEATO

December 1954

United States–Taiwan security treaty

January–April 1955

First Quemoy–Matsu [Qinmen–Mazu] Taiwan straits crisis

April 1955

Bandung conference of neutral nations

May 1955

West Germany joins NATO

Soviet Union establishes Warsaw Pact

June 1955

Creation of Baghdad Pact, later CENTO

July 1955

Eisenhower makes ‘Open Skies’ proposal at Geneva summit conference

November 1955

Successful Soviet testing of large hydrogen bomb

February 1956

Khrushchev denounces Stalin at Soviet Communist Party’s twentieth congress

October 1956

Soviet Union crushes Hungarian uprising

November 1956

Suez crisis

January 1957

Announcement of Eisenhower Doctrine for Middle East

March 1957

Treaty of Rome creates European Economic Community

October 1957

Soviet Union launches Sputnik Beginning of Second Indochina War

February–June 1958

US-assisted military rebellion in Indonesia

July 1958

United States intervention in Lebanon

August 1958

Second Quemoy–Matsu [Qinmen–Mazu] Taiwan straits crisis

November 1958

Khrushchev begins Berlin crisis

January 1959

Fidel Castro wins power in Cuba

May 1960

U-2 incident; Paris summit meeting collapses

January 1961

John F. Kennedy becomes US president

April 1961

Bay of Pigs landing

May 1961

Kennedy sends special forces to Vietnam

June 1961

Kennedy–Khrushchev summit meeting at Vienna

August 1961

Construction of Berlin Wall

Announcement of Alliance for Progress

October 1961

Sino–Soviet split made public

October 1962

Cuban missile crisis

Sino–Indian war

May 1963

Organization of African Unity established

August 1963

Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed

November 1963

Kennedy assassinated; Lyndon B. Johnson becomes US president

August 1964

Tonkin Gulf Resolution gives Johnson wide latitude in handling Vietnam crisis

October 1964

Leonid Brezhnev replaces disgraced Khrushchev as Soviet Communist Party’s general secretary

February 1965

Heavy United States bombing of North Vietnam begins

March 1965

First American combat troops dispatched to Vietnam

April 1965

United States military intervention in Dominican Republic

November 1965

Beginning of Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China

June 1967

Six-Day War in Middle East

January 1968

Tet offensive in South Vietnam

March 1968

Johnson announces United States decision to seek peace in Vietnam and withdraw

August 1968

Soviet military intervention in Czechoslovakia; Brezhnev announces Brezhnev Doctrine

January 1969

Richard M. Nixon becomes US president

March 1969

Sino–Soviet border clashes on Ussuri River

July 1969

Nixon announces Nixon Doctrine and begins reduction of American troops in Vietnam

October 1969

Willi Brandt becomes West German chancellor, pursues Ostpolitik

November 1969

Strategic Arms Limitation talks begin in Helsinki

August 1970

Brandt and Brezhnev sign Soviet–West German Treaty of Non-Aggression in Moscow

July 1971

Kissinger’s secret visit to Beijing

September 1971

Quadripartite Pact on Berlin signed

October 1971

United Nations votes to admit People’s Republic of China

December 1971

Indo–Pakistani War leads to independence for Bangladesh

February 1972

Nixon visits China, meets Mao Zedong

May 1972

Nixon–Brezhnev meeting in Moscow, where they sign the ABM Treaty and SALT-I

December 1972

West and East Germany sign Basic Treaty

January 1973

United States, South Vietnam and North Vietnam reach peace accord at Paris

March 1973

United States and PRC agree to open liaison offices in each other’s capitals

September 1973

President Salvador Allende of Chile overthrown by military coup

October 1973

Yom Kippur War, and beginning of oil crisis

August 1974

Nixon’s resignation due to Watergate scandal; Gerald R. Ford becomes US president

September 1974

Emperor Haile Selassie overthrown in Ethiopia

November 1974

Brezhnev–Ford summit meeting at Vladivostock

April 1975

North Vietnam takes over South Vietnam

August 1975

Signature of Helsinki accords

November 1975

Civil war begins in Angola

September 1976

Death of Mao Zedong

January 1977

Jimmy Carter becomes US president

July 1977

War between Ethiopia and Somalia over Ogaden

January 1979

United States and China re-establish full diplomatic relations

February 1979

Overthrow of Shah of Iran

June 1979

Brezhnev and Carter sign SALT-II Treaty at Vienna summit

July 1979

Sandinistas seize power in Nicaragua

November 1979

Beginning of Iranian hostage crisis

December 1979

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

January 1980

Announcement of Carter Doctrine to protect Persian Gulf region

August 1980

Beginning of Polish Solidarity movement

January 1981

Ronald Reagan becomes US president; American hostages released

December 1981

Martial law declared in Poland; crackdown on Solidarity

June 1982

Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) begin in Geneva

November 1982

Death of Brezhnev; succeeded by Yuri Andropov as Soviet Communist Party general secretary

March 1983

Reagan announces Strategic Defense Initiative (‘Star Wars’)

October 1983

Military intervention in Grenada

Bomb attack on Beirut barracks of United States troops

February 1984

Death of Andropov; succeeded by Constantin Chernenko as Soviet Communist Party general secretary

March 1985

Death of Chernenko; succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet Communist Party general secretary

November 1985

Reagan–Gorbachev Geneva summit meeting

October 1986

Reagan–Gorbachev Reykjavik summit meeting

November 1986

Exposure of Iran–Contra scandal

December 1987

Reagan–Gorbachev Washington summit meeting; signature of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missile Treaty

May–June 1988

Reagan visit to Moscow

January 1989

George Bush becomes US president

February 1989

Soviet troops withdrawn from Afghanistan

June 1989

Solidarity wins Polish parliamentary election Student demonstrations in Beijing provoke June 4th repression

August 1989

Non-Communist government assumes power in Poland

September 1989

Hungary reopens borders to West

November 1989

Opening and overthrow of Berlin Wall

December 1989

Non-Communist government assumes power in Czechoslovakia

Overthrow of Nicolae Ceausescu in Rumania

Bush–Gorbachev Moscow summit meeting

March 1990

Gorbachev elected president of Soviet Union

August 1990

Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

October 1990

East and West Germany reunified

November 1990

CSCE conference proclaims Cold War’s end

January 1991

Persian Gulf War begins

July 1991

Dissolution of Warsaw Pact

Bush and Gorbachev sign START-I Treaty

August 1991

Military coup against Gorbachev foiled by Boris Yeltsin

Gorbachev resigns as general secretary

December 1991

Soviet Union disbands to become Commonwealth of Independent States

Map 1 Postwar alliances: the Far East

(From America: A Narrative History by George Brown Tindall. Copyright © 1984 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.)

Map 2 Postwar alliances: Europe, North Africa, the Middle East

(From America: A Narrative History by George Brown Tindall. Copyright © 1984 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.)

Introduction

The term Cold War generally refers to the ideological, geopolitical, and economic international rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union that characterized the period from approximately 1945 to 1991. These two states, respectively the world’s leading capitalist democracy and its most prominent Communist nation, were allies during the Second World War, but within a few years perceived and depicted themselves as locked in desperate competition, a conflict in which each antagonist sought not simply to prevail, but also to win the adherence of as many other countries as possible. The heritage of the Cold War continues to haunt the world today, symbolized by the fact that the current international system has as yet acquired no better descriptive label than ‘post-Cold War world order’.

The Cold War began when the successive impact of the First and Second World Wars had destroyed the prevailing international order of the early twentieth century. In 1900 several great European powers, pre-eminent among them the British empire, Germany, and France, together with Russia and a rising power, Japan, dominated the world. The United States had the economic potential to join this exclusive club but had not yet done so. All the great powers were monarchies and most had extensive colonial possessions, which in many cases they sought to augment. Western empires ruled the Middle East, Africa, and much of Asia. A rough balance of power existed among them.

By 1945 two major wars, conflicts that the American secretary of state Dean Acheson among others characterized as a two-part ‘European civil war’ in which the interwar years constituted only a truce, had altered this international system beyond recognition or possibility of restoration. The impact of the First World War helped to facilitate the emergence of totalitarian regimes of left and right, officially dedicated to enhancing the lives and self-respect of the general populace even as they imposed authoritarian controls over political, economic, and intellectual matters. In Russia the First World War brought the overthrow in 1917 of Tsar Nicholas I and the creation of the world’s first Communist state, the Soviet Union. In Italy in 1923 and Germany in 1933 the war experience and consequent economic and political dislocations contributed substantially to the emergence of Fascist regimes, respectively led by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, their stated objectives to restore their nations’ international standing and win them a place in the sun.

The Second World War, in many respects the result of German and Italian efforts to accomplish these objectives, reduced all European states to the rank of second-class powers, close to bankruptcy and suffering from severe physical war damage, while greatly enhancing the relative standing of both the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States emerged as incomparably the greatest economic power in the world, its industrial plant and superiority decisively enhanced from serving as the ‘arsenal of democracy’ which provided the matériel for the Allied war effort. Although German invasion initially inflicted severe damage on the Soviet Union, Russian economic potential and the sheer size of the Soviet military intimidated its smaller, war-crippled European neighbours. In Asia the war left Japan devastated and defeated and China gravely weakened and wracked by internal revolt and economic difficulties. In most Asian colonies forceful nationalist movements, of varying political complexions, emerged or waxed stronger during the war. These had discredited the European colonial overlords, depriving them of the financial, military, and ideological resources to maintain their grip on their imperial possessions, whose future governmental systems and international alignments generally still remained undetermined.

Historians have disagreed, sometimes bitterly, as to whether considerations of ideology, national security, or economic advantage predominated in causing the Cold War; over which nation, the United States or the Soviet Union, bore the greater responsibility for its development; and on the relative moral merits of the two major protagonists. The Cold War is perhaps best understood as the product of an international power vacuum in both Europe and Asia and of the tensions engendered by the gradual definition, demarcation, and delineation of a new balance of power. Much of the world was in flux as a new system, greatly affected by the developing bipolar Soviet–American antagonism which was both a cause and, increasingly, a self-generating consequence of the Cold War, emerged incrementally. This process took place at varying speeds in different regions, and throughout the Cold War local revisions were nearly always in progress.

In Europe a stable modus vivendi,